Ham Radio General-Elmer Edition

[Anonymous No.1444577]

In this thread we talk about:
- The New Guy
-Elmers
-First contact with a new ham
-Repeater edicut

Current data on propagation is here: http://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/map

Online SDR's networks: websdr.org sdr.hu

Learning morse code: lcwo.net www.justlearnmorsecode.com

Amateur Satellites: https://www.amsat.org/

Amateur TV: http://www.batc.tv/

FAQ: ftp://collectivecomputers.org:21212/Books/Cyberpunk/Tech/Radio

Handy Apps:
Repeaterbook

Old thread was pruned didn't get the link, sorry guys.

I am waiting on my call sign and thought it would be a good time for a thread about a fresh ham getting on the air for the first time.

Pic related, my starter truck radio.

[Anonymous No.1444605]

>>1444577
Dim bulb personal blog edition. Delete that crap.

[Anonymous No.1444745]

Good to be back!

Last thread: >>1416613

[Anonymous No.1444759]

>>1444605
Actually, I might do that too, "Anon's requested personal blog"

>>1444745
Yeah, I think I'm going to come up with a list of affordable radio equipment as a starter list. My next radio purchase is probably a Yaesu VX-6R for hiking and stuff like that. But economically minded people should be aware of the decent less expensive options that are out there.

[Anonymous No.1444782]

>>1444759
The FAQ mentions the Pixie as well as how to mod it for far better performance.

[Anonymous No.1444935]

>>1444782
At the moment my hand held is a baofeng with a nagoya na-771. Strangely my baofeng is more sensitive than the TYT.

Not complaining about it, just strange that my handheld picks up stations much easier than the truck radio.
The only thing I can think of is since the antenna on the truck is heavier

[Anonymous No.1444948]

>>1444935
Probably poor ground plane on the mobile.

[Anonymous No.1445096]

Got my Tech and General on Saturday. Going to start studying for Extra tomorrow. Til then I'm F5'ing ULS ever god damn second.

[Anonymous No.1445140]

>>1445096
Congratulations!

[Anonymous No.1445203]

>>1444935
Read https://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/13175
Send it back before it gets worse.

[Anonymous No.1445210]

>>1444577
the hammer in his "lair"

[Anonymous No.1445213]

Hi /diy/

I'm a radio illiterate, but I was wondering, can I use one of those bluetooth to FM transmitters for cars to jam the signal of a neighbor who listens to loud, obnoxious music?

I have to study for months for a big test and asking nicely to turn down the volume is not an option.

[Anonymous No.1445219]

>>1445213
Use ear plugs or study in the library.

[Anonymous No.1445240]

>>1444948
It does sit on my truck bed tool box, or are you referring to the actual connection to the radio, because if so I did get the wrong connector for it through an adapter, BNC to pl259.
>>1445096
Well done I took my tech license test 9 days ago and I'm still standing by for my call sign. I'm hoping it shows up before tonight's local net so I can check in, I'm very excited.

[Anonymous No.1445716]

Two topics remaining from last thread:
- antenna pr0n - someone wanted that to be the topic of this bread
- better radio protocols to avoid having to rely on an Internet connection

[Anonymous No.1445738]

>>1445213
If the station is really week in your area perhaps. Those little things are not that powerful. Dude I went to school with used to do just that. They worked in a test equipment manufacturing company. They would drop sig gen carriers to jam the factory floor radios for some peace.

[Anonymous No.1445850]

Does anyone here do RC stuff? I do, I fly FPV sometimes and I know I have to have my information on my transmitters.
The way I understood the regulation is 'directly on the transmitter.' Or can I affix my information to the device on the outside.
I'm not entirely positive how I should do that. What do you guys think?

[Anonymous No.1445865]

>>1444577
I'm brand new to this sort of stuff, what's a good radio I can get started on? One that I can talk to people across the world on

[Anonymous No.1445866]

>>1445850

You're in the ham thread son; it's for age 50 and up. There's a RC thread for you youngsters, now GIT!

[Anonymous No.1445904]

>>1445865
Well, first you need to be licensed in your country. Other operators won't/can't talk to you if you don't have a verifiable callsign.

In America, you'll need a General-class to be able use HF frequencies (the global communications bands) for the most part (10 Meters is useless currently thanks to the Solar Minimum) but you can find an Alinco DX-SR8T or DX-R8T used for $300-$400 which is not a bad starter. You'll need an antenna and if you don't know how to build one, I'd say get a True Talk G5RV for $100 off of Ebay IF you can get the center 35 feet in the air and both ends of the 51 foot wires 10-15 feet off the air 120 degrees or greater from each other.

Even from the central US, that 100 watt radio will easily let you talk to Europe/Russia and Argentina with ease on good band condition days.

[Anonymous No.1445958]

>>1445904
Is there perhaps other good starter radios that are a bit cheaper?

[Anonymous No.1445965]

>>1445958
For HF comms? Alinco is the only non-"Big 3" I'd recommend for a big rig and that's about as cheap as you're going to find an HF rig. Anything cheaper used is going to be a lucky break.
You might find a better radio on Craigslist for less. I have seen an FT-891 go for $200 on CL (sold before I could grab it) and an IC-718 (great starter radio) go for $250.

Also watch https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?forums/ham-radio-gear-for-sale.7/

Most of the guys on there think their 10 year old IC-7100 is "like new" and are asking $50 less than retail, but occasionally there's really good deals on stuff.

Just try to find something that can do 1.8 MHz (160 meters) to 28 MHz (10 meters) or 50 MHz (6 meters) and is in working order. A 20 year old Kenwood that doesn't have burnt out finals or dry caps for $200 on CL will get you on the air just as well as a new IC-7851 would.

[Anonymous No.1446007]

>>1445965
What about a FT-DX101D

[Anonymous No.1446013]

>>1445965
Also will I be able to tune into to Airport and air craft chatter?

[Anonymous No.1446016]

>>1446007
It's a Big Three so it is a good bet. I have a buddy who's HUGE into Ham and is a massive audiophile to boot. He bought an ICOM 7851 and sold his TS-590SG BACK UP radio for a few hundred dollars to another friend.

Anyway, he dislikes his $14,000 (that's not a typo) radio's audio processing and misses the Kenwood's performance. (Kenwoods hear everything.) So he's selling the 7851 and has ordered a Kenwood TS-990 to replace it ($11,000 cheaper radio).

He's always told me he avoids Yaesu because their internal tuners are subpar and he thinks the audio is too 'Tinny' but a lot of hams I know love their Yaesus.

[Anonymous No.1446022]

>>1446013
Most airport and aircraft is in the UHF and VHF bands. There's very few HF aircraft bands and those are mostly Russian (civilian) and US Military (the infamous "Skyking" HFGCS radio over on /pol/).

You might want to play arounf on this site before you invest: http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

Amateur Radio bands are marked in green. Learn the differences between AM, FM, Upper Sideband (USB), Lower Sideband (LSB) and CW (these are essentially bandwidths).

[Anonymous No.1446024]

>>1446016
So if I get a radio and antenna is that it? No more accessories?

[Anonymous No.1446027]

>>1446022
If I get an airband radio can I still talk to people?

[Anonymous No.1446037]

>>1446024
Well, I'd get a good monitor (speaker). I personally use an Avantone MixCube (passive), a decent set of over the ear headphones (your gaming headphones are good enough) and maybe a good desk mic.

Those are all optional, you can get on the air without them. You will however need a 13.8 Volt power supply (15 Amps... about $100 for a decent one) and I would highly recommend a 1:1 RF filter ($30) and a lightning arrestor ($15 for a spark gap) tied to a ground rod.

>>1446027
I'm not an expert on aircraft radios. I think you need to be licensed as well to use those. I only play on ham bands and maritime traffic.

[Anonymous No.1446040]

Anyone know where I can get some headphones for my baofeng uv-5r? Can only find earpieces

[Anonymous No.1446042]

>>1446040
Jest get a 2.5 mm male to 3.5 mm female stereo plug adapter and use whatever headphones you want.

[Anonymous No.1446048]

>>1446042
I don't know who you are, but thank you for all of your advice :)

[Anonymous No.1446049]

>>1446048
:)
73's.

[Anonymous No.1446051]

>>1446049
73's?

[Anonymous No.1446055]

>>1446051
Ham jargon for "I'll talk to you later."

[Anonymous No.1446059]

>>1446055
Ahhhh I see, In that case:
73's

[Anonymous No.1446062]

>>1446027
Those are only usefull if you have an aircraft or are working with aircraft. You also require a non ham license for said band.

[Anonymous No.1446156]

>>1446055
No, that would be CUAGN. 73 stands for 'best regards' and has no plural form. Saying 73s (or even more absurd, 73's) is like saying 'best regardses'. The secret charm of 73 is hidden in its iambic rhythm - only accessible to the initiates of CW.

[Anonymous No.1446159]

>>1446027
If you get a Baofeng UV-5RV2+ ($35), the programming cable ($10) and CHIRP software (free), you can cheat the firmware in the radio and program in VHF Aircraft frequencies (directly input them from the CHIRP) as well as the 2 Meter and 70 cm ham radio bands. This also work for commercial VHF maritime.

[Anonymous No.1446160]

>>1445738
Thanks anon

[Anonymous No.1446209]

Has anyone heard of FT8CALL? It's a new modified version of FT8 with the purpose being to allow for rag chew instead of just limiting people to short scripted QSOs, but still retains the ability to be decoded at 24dB below the noise floor like FT8. Only issue currently is that the developer is a fucktard and set the default frequencies in the software right on top of the PSK-31 and RTTY calling frequencies and insists it's okay for his mode to share a space with the calling frequencies of other modes rather than picking any other frequency that isn't already being used for a calling frequency or net.

[Anonymous No.1446227]

>>1446209
Messed with FT8 at field day this year. It was difficult. Might have been band conditions, but that software leaves a lot to be desired. Not very intuitive, and the documentation is next to worthless.

I'm not that impressed with it just yet. Maybe in a few years once it's more refined, i'll give it another shot.

20m was decent, it's where I racked up the majority of contacts.

[Anonymous No.1446323]

>>1446159
But does it receive AM modulation?

VHF Marine is FM but Aircraft is AM.

[Anonymous No.1446391]

>>1446227
shit's awkward as fuck to use, i lurk a bit sometimes but can't be bothered learning all the steps to make contacts yet

easier to just switch over to wspr and spray my callsign about for whoever can hear me when i've got the power wound down to 5w or so

[Anonymous No.1446543]

>>1446159
Does chirp not work with the uv-5r?

[Anonymous No.1446545]

>>1446543
werks 4 me

[Anonymous No.1446546]

>>1446545
And you can listen to air frequencies?

[Anonymous No.1446549]

>>1446546
never tried
only set the thing up to be able to listen to ham frequencies

[Anonymous No.1446551]

>>1446549
Iooked at the programming cable on Amazon and it comes with a cd, what's tags about

And is chirp easy to use?

[Anonymous No.1446552]

>>1446551
>it comes with a cd,
drivers. if your PC has internet you probably don't need the disk
>what's tags about
what?
>And is chirp easy to use?
sure

[Anonymous No.1446553]

>>1446552
>What's tags about

I meant "What's that about", sorry

[Anonymous No.1446562]

>>1446553
Don't bother with the CD, it's just bloated with adware. Windows 7 and above will just plug and play the cable and CHIRP.

[Anonymous No.1446649]

>>1444577
I'm a physics major and I always thought radios were pretty fucking cool and want to get into it.

How do I go about building my own radio and how much time and money am I looking at?

[Anonymous No.1446684]

>>1446227
There are many problems with the protocols, one is that this one violates the general principles in radio traffic: use the lowest power that does the work.

There is no channel characterisation, no tracking of fading, no adaption to the channel, no updates of it and payload is trivial. Even a 20 year old 56k model does better than this.

If you can use GPS disiplined timer you can easily track latency and estimate distance and many propagation parameter. You could use one reference carrier to track during transmission. Other channels listening in, queuing for QSL could prime channel estimates with what has already been observed. And more.

Payload is just to get a quick, cheap and automated QSL. You could at least transmit what each node has received with a bias going west to follow day/night cycle. That way we could cut down on the sounders and instead use a distributed net that does sounding continuously with no need for Internet access.

Cell phone tech is a gold mine of useful tricks that are overdue for HF radio implementation.

[Anonymous No.1446707]

>>1446649
~$5 upwards assuming you already have soldering equipment.

Time depends on your current level of knowledge and what you choose to build.

[Anonymous No.1446723]

Hey, guys, a quick question about a shortwave antenna. I have bought one of these cheap antennas that are just an 8m cable that you can put on the aerial.

My question is: How can I optimize reception? Should I still have the aerial extended when using this? Is it better to have a long cable touching the floor or a short cable that doesn't touch the floor t all?

[Anonymous No.1446750]

>>1446723
Depends on the floor. If its on the ground you want the antenna going up but if its a second story wooden floor its going to be fine on the floor.

>8m
Longer is better.

[Anonymous No.1446760]

>>1446723
Also google "inverted L antenna"

[Anonymous No.1446820]

>>1446750
>>1446760
Thanks anon

[Anonymous No.1446848]

>>1446707
I don't have any soldering experience, let alone equipment

Where can I read more about how this is done? Any tutorials or blogs to follow?

[Anonymous No.1446863]

>>1446848
You're probably better off starting by building antennas and using a factory made radio at first.

Antennas are fun and Antenna Theory is its own physics field itself. Directional, omni-directional, Earth-Moon-Earth bounce, Near Vertical Incidence Skywave... There's no ends to antenna making and that's the real physics of radio communications. The math and science is really all in the antenna. Balancing, wavelength, ionosphere, and other stuff.

http://www.arrl.org/shop/Antenna-Physics-An-Introduction/

http://www.arrl.org/shop/ARRL-Antenna-Book-23rd-Softcover-Edition/

http://www.arrl.org/shop/Basic-Antennas/

[Anonymous No.1446967]

>>1446848
Read the FAQ up top. I think there is some stuff on the pixie meme in there. As for soldering /ohm/ and/or youtube.

Then there is study and licensing. Those things are all country related so start by checking your local authority on those things. Cost there range from free to $100s depending on country.

[Anonymous No.1447269]

Hey there. Board traveler here. I am not an operator, but I got a promotion at my retail job where I am assigned a Motorola RDM2070D to use throughout my shift.

Which wireless accessory is the best bang for the buck? I don't have a clip attached to this radio, so the radio is quite cumbersome to fit in a pocket. I ask here because I don't want to spend more than whats needed. Something like pic related is ideal, but I dont know. Thanks in advance, /diy/!!!!!

[Anonymous No.1447298]

Is a CB radio worth getting?

[Anonymous No.1447366]

I have a bottom-tier worthless AM/FM radio that can also receive shortwave bands (just basic ones like 31m, 25m, 45m, and seven others that I can't remember). I want to maximise my fun with it. It has an aerial that sticks out the top; is that enough to get me a good signal? Across the ten bands of shortwave, I get about 3-4 radio stations that I can actually listen to. That's awful, but I know that not all radio stations broadcast 24/7 so I shouldn't expect too much. Is there anything I can do to improve reception? I live in England and was listening to Cuban radio last night, but I want some Eastern European stations. I was listening at night.

I'm sorry if your thread gets hundreds of requests like these. If you have a babby pleb guide to just listening to shortwave radio, I'll happily read it.

[Anonymous No.1447417]

>>1447298
Because Im possibly looking into getting into cb radio. I don't want to set it up in my car so instead of building an antenna rig onto my house, can't I just put a mobile antenna (the ones for cars) and put put it on the desk next to the radio? And what are some good radios for beginners?

[Anonymous No.1447425]

Best vhf am airband scanner?

[Anonymous No.1447453]

>>1447366
Look up a randomwire antenna. Make it as high and as long as you possibly can.If there's no external antanna jack, just clip it to the metal base of the aerial.

>>1447417
A mobile CB antenna requires a metal ground plane. It will kill the finals on your radio if you don't have a ground plane. At the very least, stick it to a cookie sheet. You'll still have higher than optimal Standing Wave Ratio, but it won't kill your radio if you get an antenna tuner (get one anyway; $15 for one for CB).

>>1447425
Look into the Software Defined Radios that do VHF (you want one that can work in 130-145 MHz) and a little one meter-ish antenna outside or on your roof.

I think an RTL-SDR V3.0 ($30) will work for you with HDSDR (free).

[Anonymous No.1447491]

How would pic related work?

[Anonymous No.1447511]

>>1447491

there are many issues.
- the 555 is wired wrong. if you google "555 astable" you'll see 1 million variations of this drawing, with pins 2 and 6 together.
- the 10K pot is wired wrong. you use one extremity and the center pin, not the 2 extremities coz the resistant is not variable between those.
- cap on pin 5 needs to be grounded. or removed. it doesnt actually do anything.
- you dont need 2 caps on pin 3. pick one or the other
- where is the transistor getting it's power from? nowhere. so it wont do anything.

[Anonymous No.1447667]

>>1447453
What does an antenna tuner do?

[Anonymous No.1447672]

What are some good cb radios for beginners?

[Anonymous No.1447680]

>>1447667
It helps adjust the Standing Wave Ratio to 1:1 which gives you the most effective signal and doesn't burn out your finals.

>>1447672
Anything with Single Side Band.

[Anonymous No.1447705]

>>1447511
Ok, so I have to put the 2nd and 6th pin together, put the 3rd pin of the 10k pot to the ground and the center pin to the transmitter. About the caps on pin 3, does it matter wich one I choose or can I take the 1uF out? Thw power on the transistor has me a little bit confused. I thought it got its power from the 3rd pin on the 555. Thanks anon

[Anonymous No.1447725]

>>1447680
What are finals? (I'm 100% new to this type of thing so speak to me like a child or something)

Will I be able to speak to people in other countries? Or just my local area? (i live in the UK)

[Anonymous No.1447726]

>>1447491
The fuck is this even supposed to be? A spurious emission generator?

[Anonymous No.1447736]

>>1447725
Basically, it's the final set of electronics converting your voice to radio waves just before the signal is sent to the antenna. An SWR of 2:1 (I personally never transmit above 1.5:1) or higher puts a lot of stress on the circuits and burns them out fast.

[Anonymous No.1447746]

>>1447705
>does it matter wich one I choose or can I take the 1uF out?

the bigger cap will give a bigger signal, but i suspect the diff will be so small it wont matter, so remove whatever you like.

>I thought it got its power from the 3rd pin on the 555.

nope - take a look at similar circuits on the net. you'll see you made a transcription error on the drawing.

[Anonymous No.1447749]

>>1447725
>Will I be able to speak to people in other countries? Or just my local area?
A CB will only let you talk in a 10-15 km range on most days. Sometimes Sporadic E (condition in the ionosphere) will let you talk hundreds of km but that's rare.

You really need an HF Amateur Radio to talk around the world. On an average day, it's pretty easy to talk to the US from Europe with 100 watts. I can rag chew with a dude in Perm, Russia from Illinois with my set up and no amplifier.

[Anonymous No.1447771]

>>1447749
Ah ok. I think I will go for a CB radio for now.

Just to confirm, could I get away with using a mobile antenna indoors if I put it on a metal tray?

[Anonymous No.1447776]

>>1447771
Indoor antenna is going to significantly weaken your range. Ideally for CB, you want a ground plane at least 1.2 square meters for a mag mount.

Alternatively, look for a "ground plane kit" like link related: https://smile.amazon.com/TRAM-1465-Mobile-Ground-Plane/dp/B004PGMFGM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1534622250&sr=8-4&keywords=CB+antenna+ground+plane

And hook up a 4 foot Firestick to it.

[Anonymous No.1447796]

>>1447776
But I could use a mag mount on a metal tray?

[Anonymous No.1447813]

>>1447796
I know people who do that with 2 meter and 70 cm radio, hell, I've heard of people using the top pf their fridge as a ground plane so I suppose it will work for 11 meters. If you buy a radio that doesn't have an antenna tuner/SWR meter, get an inline one because I feel a metal tray might be too small for a ground plane.

[Anonymous No.1447817]

>>1447813
For a radio, I've got my eye on the CRT One

How do I use a swr meter? Where does the needle need to point to?

[Anonymous No.1447822]

>>1447817
An SWR meter shows if what your Standing Wave Ratio is. Think of SWR as resistance to your signal getting out (that's the glib interpretation) and the reflected energy can damage your radio if it's too high. Ideally, you want a ratio of 1:1 but anything 2:1 or lower is best. Never let it get higher than 2:1 unless you want your radio to die quickly.

You basically read the needle while you have the microphone on and do a test count or just talk.

[Anonymous No.1447823]

>>1447822
what if the needle is above 2? How would I get it down?

[Anonymous No.1447838]

>>1445213
who the hells listens to radio anymore? he is either running mp3s, youtube, or some online radio. you can't jam that shit. your only option is to build some sort of EMP device

[Anonymous No.1447913]

Has anyone here heard about the new QSX transceiver that QRP Labs is coming out with?
>10 watt all mode SDR based single band 40 meter transceiver with integrated support for digital modes without a computer for $75
>make it 160-10 meter with an aluminum enclosure for $150
https://www.qrp-labs.com/qsx.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL6CWaY438Y

Also, does anyone else have really high hopes for the future of cheap HF kits?
>BITX came out in October of 2016 and does SSB at up to 7 watts on 40 meters for $60
>QRP Labs single band QCX came out last August and does CW at up to 5 watts on one band of your choice from 80-17 meters for $50
>uBITX came out last December and does SSB/CW at up to 10 watts on 80-10 meter for $130
>now there's going to be an SDR based 10 watt all band all mode transceiver for only $150 or single band for $75
What are we going to see next? I remember just a few years ago the best you could do for ~$100 was a single band sub 5 watt CW only transceiver that didn't even cover the entire CW portion of the band and the only options around $50 didn't even have a VFO. And all this is all on top of the new modified version of FT8 that allows more than just scripted QSOs that will make QRP operation a breeze.

[Anonymous No.1447921]

>>1447823
Shorten or lengthen the antenna at the base.

[Anonymous No.1447927]

>>1447817
>How do I use a swr meter?

The one pictured:
>install in line with antenna cable
>switch radio to am or fm not ssb
>switch swr meter to forward
>transmit wile adjusting swr meter needle to set mark quickly
>switch meter to reflected
>transmit and read swr

For 27mhz don't even bother with anything under a 3 foot mobile antenna. 5 foot and up is better.

If swr is lower on ch1 than 40 ant is too long. If lower on 40 than 1 too short.

My first antenna was a 9 foot steel rod on a ground plane.

[Anonymous No.1447930]

>>1447927
Should add lowest reflected reading is what you are looking for ideally.

[Anonymous No.1448130]

>>1447823
At the output stage there is an impedance matching net, either an autotuner or a handle for an inductor and a capacitor, and then you tune these until SWR is minimised. Tuning should be done at minimum power output, otherwise the smoke escapes from the electronics.

[Anonymous No.1448149]

>>1447913
>Has anyone here heard about the new QSX transceiver that QRP Labs is coming out with?
This is the first I hear of it. Interesting but vague. For instance, what DP? And why not open source?

>Also, does anyone else have really high hopes for the future of cheap HF kits?
Sure. With partially preassembled stuff you can get a lot. Trouble is, more and more is in high density packaging rather than through hole.

>What are we going to see next?
As mentioned earlier I think a lot more could be done by doing more on the DSP side and integrating GPS data into the system. Also a better protocol is way overdue. FT8 lacks channel characterisation which i consider a minimum for a modern protocol.

[Anonymous No.1448159]

>>1448130
Most CBs don't have an inbuilt ATU. You trim the antenna or adjust it in the case of adjustable tip models.

>t. guy who sells them.

[Anonymous No.1448338]

>>1447930
Here, read this so you understand what SWR is and why it's important: http://www.wc7i.com/reflection%20section.htm You need some basic antenna knowledge so also read this:http://www.sgcworld.com/Publications/Downloads/antennas101.pdf

[Anonymous No.1448436]

>>1447822
Less than 2 is ideal, but honestly, 3-4 on a decent mobile isn't really going to hurt things. Could be better.

Antenna's going to be resonant at a single frequency on a band, and SWR goes up either way from there. With the dual-band radios/antennas, you're going to have a compromise somewhere.

Infrastructure equipment that operates on one freq, yeah, do what you need to for the best match to the freq you're on. Mobiles/portables, they're generally fine unless something's really fucked up.

[Anonymous No.1448973]

>>1447817
>CRT One
That's a cheap and tiny multi-norm AM/FM CB radio sold mainly in the EU. It doesn't offer duck-talk (a.k.a. SSB) but 40 AM and up to 80 FM channels instead. In the US, the use of FM is still ruled out by the FCC.
>>1448159
>No ATU
No typical CB radio has that, because it is not necessary. It is almost impossible to accidentally damage the PA of modern CB radios even if you transmit with disconnected antenna or shorted output. The one just mentioned (like many of its kind) has a well cooled 100V 12A QFET as a PA transistor that can easily handle the reflected power. The SWR hysteria on exhibition here is largely based on ignorance.

[Anonymous No.1449610]

Significant Changes in Store for FT8 and MSK144 with WSJT-X Version 2.0
New versions will not be compatible with current versions
A self-driving car needs no passenger

[Anonymous No.1449925]

>House is covered in chicken wire because stucco
>Power line and transformer in back
>Power and cable run directly from the pole to the house above the backyard
>Power line and transformer across the street

Fucking kill me.

[Anonymous No.1449937]

>>1449925
i live right next to the local transformer, i know some of that feel senpai

underground power lines here though, thank fuck

[Anonymous No.1450144]

>>1444577
The FAQ should really have more information about how the bands are monitored rather than just "the government is watching and they use these antennas/systems" with no actual in depth description. They should really mention at least a bit about monitoring by amateur radio enthusiasts such as the KiwiSDR crowd sourced TDOA transceiver locating, the wideband recording of all amateur radio bands and the automated conversion to text of QSOs during contests as a way to enforce the rules, and how services like Broadcastify keep rolling 1 month recordings of all scanners that people have linked to it.

[Anonymous No.1450187]

Let the slaves defend their slavery. A clandestino is immune to fear porn.

[Anonymous No.1450346]

The Government is defunding WWV and WWVH! Stations will cease operation in October because they cut the 39 million needed to keep them operating.

Petition to save them: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/maintain-funding-nist-stations-wwv-wwvh

[Anonymous No.1450348]

>>1450346
*3.9 million, I mean.

[Anonymous No.1450422]

Why does the Reverse Beacon Network have an SSB option for spots? They can't convert phone QSOs to text for pulling call signs from them, can they?

[Anonymous No.1450474]

>>1450346

oh, man! having to manually adjust my digital clocks like some caveman.

[Anonymous No.1450477]

>>1450346

oh, man! having to manually sync my digital clocks like the cavemen did.

[Anonymous No.1450504]

>>1450477
No. WWVB, the 60 kHz station that provides the signal for radio clocks is not proposed for defunding.

[Anonymous No.1450526]

>>1450346
Tell Trumpet about the Chinese alternative.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_clock#List_of_radio_time_signal_stations

[Anonymous No.1451078]

Why are old all mode single band VHF and UHF transceivers so fucking expensive? Is there really that much of a demand to justify them costing almost as much as a used Yaesu FT-817 or a used Icom IC-706 that can operate on HF+6m/2m/70cm? It seems all of them are ~$500 used no matter the model.

[Anonymous No.1451088]

>>1451078
>Why are old all mode single band VHF and UHF transceivers so fucking expensive?

Why are 40 year-old Broncos and FJs so expensive?

[Anonymous No.1451106]

>>1451088
Because they're collectable? From what I've heard amateur radio equipment from the 80s on generally doesn't have much collector's value and is mostly just considered from a practical point of view. Also, single band all mode VHF/UHF transceivers were still being sold in the 90s. Are there that many people buying all mode VHF/UHF transceivers just as collector's items?

[Anonymous No.1451117]

>>1451106
The point is that it's vintage and rugged and pretty and works fine and old men with enough money to indulge themselves like them.

[Anonymous No.1451134]

>>1451117
>vintage
Even the 90s models?

>rugged
No more so than modern equipment.

>and works fine
The modern transceivers I listed in my first post get significantly more bang at the same cost unless I'm missing something. HF gear from the same years doesn't somehow end up costing more than modern options for what you get.

[Anonymous No.1451137]

>>1451078
Because you can't get anything like them now. If you want anything other than FM on VHF and above you have to buy something old or fuck around with transverters. Part of why fuckers are so excited about the IC-9700, I guess.

Keep in mind that those "shack in a box" units like the IC-706 and FT-817 are "jack of all trades, master of none" tier. You've gotta make compromises to fit so much into a tiny box like that. Good for the mobile/portable use they're designed for or as babby's first rig though

[Anonymous No.1451143]

>>1451134
>Even the 90s models?
Sure.

>No more so than modern equipment.
Yeah, but it looks the part more.

>The modern transceivers I listed in my first post get significantly more bang at the same cost unless I'm missing something. HF gear from the same years doesn't somehow end up costing more than modern options for what you get.
It's not about bang for your buck, it's about getting exactly the bang you want; vintage is vintage. It's like someone spending $20,000 on the Scout II they always wanted instead of a newer SUV because fuck you I want to.

[Anonymous No.1451183]

>>1445210
Pottery.

[Anonymous No.1451411]

>>1451134
Pic. related is Boat Anchor grade vintage, mil. spec. rugged and works fine. it is from long before the 90's.

[Anonymous No.1451425]

>>1451411
I'd murder a thousand hamsters for a Murphy B40.

[Anonymous No.1451431]

>>1451411
Yes, and? I'm wondering why even 90s all mode single band VHF/UHF equipment made for amateur use is just as expensive as used current production all band options that include both the 2 meter and 70cm bands. I'm not talking about 1950s collectible tube based military gear that was the Rolls Royce of receivers at the time.

[Anonymous No.1451569]

>>1451431
It's because idiots think they have gold, then sell that shit to other inexperienced idiots who pay their asking price. Finally, the buyer tries to justify their shit purchase by claiming it's better (don't make 'em like they used to) in order to save face after finding out how much money they wasted. Granted there are some exceptions. Ebay and qrz have made this shit worse.

[Anonymous No.1451573]

>>1450144
>The FAQ should really have more information about how the bands are monitored
Better now?
ftp://collectivecomputers.org:21212/Books/Cyberpunk/Tech/Radio/radio_FAQ_Preview8.htm

[Anonymous No.1451808]

A friend has told me that, when he was a kid, he discovered that putting a size D Duracell alkaline battery against his cheap portable radio's case improved reception a lot. He says he was able to pick really distant stations thanks to that humble setup.

How true is this? Is he bullshitting me?

[Anonymous No.1451823]

He also said that only a size D Duracell alkaline battery improved the reception, no other brand, and only during a blue moon.

[Anonymous No.1451851]

>>1445203
Well, as much as I hate it, I'm returning this cheese dick radio. It receives alright but the transmitter doesn't work. I cant key up and hit my HT on any freq.

Looks like I'm going to go buy an icom. It sucks having a good reason to buy a decent radio. I'm looking at a 2730a for a decent mobile.
If you have other suggestions I have these requirements for a decent mobile:
Cross band repeat
Dual band [minimum]
At least 25w
Something others have heard of in the ham community
A decent magnetic base antenna pairing

I frequently switch vehicles from my pickup to my car and I need to be able to just grab and go.

[Anonymous No.1451915]

>>1451851
What did you expect from a <$150 radio made of Chinesium?

[Anonymous No.1452149]

>>1451078
>>1451137
After some more research (specifically reading about the new IC-9700), it seems those single band VHF/UHF all mode rigs are comparable to high end HF rigs from the same time period and are marketed toward the weak signal/EME crowd rather than people who simply want better simplex performance than a normal FM mobile rig (which is what the 2 meter SSB activity I've heard had lead me to believe). I guess I need to adjust my expectations.

[Anonymous No.1452170]

What's more useful in practice, a mobile ham or CB? I drive on logging roads occasionally so I'm thinking CB.

[Anonymous No.1452186]

>>1452170
Are you wanting wide area coverage with repeaters or vehicle to vehicle simplex? If you're looking at simplex with strangers, CB wins by default since pretty much no one does FM simplex on the amateur bands anymore.

[Anonymous No.1452226]

>>1444577
What frequency should I tune in to for my school's security personnel? I think they're still on analog because it's not listed on radioreference as a trunked system.

[Anonymous No.1452386]

>>1452170
Check with locals. Uhf Cb is required by law in all log trucks in my state but I'm not a burger.

[Anonymous No.1452654]

>>1451915
Eh, I didnt have high expectations. But I would have thought I'd get at least ONE transmission out of it.

[Anonymous No.1452669]

>>1452654
And now you know better.

[Anonymous No.1452776]

>>1452669
The plan was to upgrade later, not sooner. Unfortunately the odds were not in my favor.

[Anonymous No.1453026]

>>1449610
Interesting. Source?

[Anonymous No.1453118]

>>1453026
ARRL News

[Anonymous No.1453186]

One of the days there will be a more extensive setup:
https://youtu.be/abapFJN6glo

[Anonymous No.1453210]

This isn't exactly a ham radio question, but here goes since it's a radio thread:
>got a radio scanner recently
>it scans several bands
>only legible stuff I've managed to listen to so far are some old guys talking about cars on the private band, something that sounds like hotel(?) communication(room so-and-so: code 3, stuff like that) and some stuff on the air/marine band like "echo echo 6-5" that makes zero sense to me. Maybe some code words ATC uses?
>everything else sounds like it's been encoded in some way - it's not static, but doesn't make any sense either, like it's encoded digital data or something
I'm really kinda new to this and have no idea what I'm supposed to even be scanning, but it seems that the frequency bands that transmit stuff might be really different here since it's a foreign-built scanner and all I've managed to hear on the bands the scanner uses by default has been asinine and confusing(apart from middle aged guys talking about their trucks' exhaust pipes and stuff).

Now, I'm not exactly a newcomer to radio hardware, but the culture around it really does confuse me in a big way since I'm a 25 year old and as such have pretty much always had Internet. Sorry for making a blog post but how the hell are you supposed to know if you never ask?

[Anonymous No.1453228]

>>1453210
Air band is easy, look up the ATC frequencies for your nearest airport.

[Anonymous No.1453265]

Hai gusy lol. /g/ here, I'm curious to start this here radio thing as a new hobby and I'm also thinking about building a new PC, is there any specific hardware I should consider when building my rig to support my new hobby?

[Anonymous No.1453291]

>>1453265
Radio quiet hardware that can run on batteries if needed. Many computers ruin the reception through their own broadband emissions unless you have a more distant antenna.

[Anonymous No.1453789]

>>1453118
I didn't find much. Did they provide details?

[Anonymous No.1453971]

Is there any scanner software compatible with an RTL-SDR for Linux that works by scanning chunks of spectrum at a time rather than a single frequency and can handle multiple types of modulation either through automatic detection or by setting specific types of modulation for specific parts of the spectrum? Preferably with support for AM, FM, LSB, and USB for scanning both CB and amateur 2 meter/70 cm bands.

On a side note, why does it seem like most software development related to the RTL-SDR is for Windows?

[Anonymous No.1453993]

>>1453971
I use GQRX, it might have what you're looking for.

[Anonymous No.1453996]

>>1453993
(the G stands for GNU)

[Anonymous No.1454001]

>>1453993
Scanning in GQRX is done sequentially via a scan list and is slow as fuck compared to the Windows software I've seen that can scan entire 2 MHz chunks of spectrum at once without being dependent on a scan list.

[Anonymous No.1454014]

>>1454001
maybe you should get into GNU-radio yourself?

[Anonymous No.1454085]

>>1453210
Grab a copy of the FCC's spectrum allocation chart. That'll tell you what's where.
Also grab a copy of the ARRL ham radio band plan. Again, tells you what's where for amateur radio.

The "encoded" stuff you're hearing is likely digital.
In the US, public safety is P25 (and usually 800MHz band).
Commercial stuff is moving to DMR. Real irritating buzzing noise (2-slot TDMA).

Public safety inteorp is mostly analog (VFIRE21, VSAR16, UCALL40, 8CALL90, etc) but those aren't used for day-to-day operations.
Might find some FMN simulcasts, smaller towns may still be using analog equipment.

Same for business, there may still be some analog stuff around.

Amateur voice is mostly FM in the VHF/UHF bands. Occasional Fusion/DMR/DSTAR channels in there.

Air band is often AM.

Each group has its own lingo.
"10-4" is pretty well known, i think everyone understands that one.
"I'm code 4" on a public safety channel might mean "everything's fine i'm back in service".
Hospitals/med use "color codes" - code blue, code black, code yellow, etc. Loosely standardized.
Commercial will come up with their own things.
Amateurs use 3-letter Q-codes. Short-hand for relaying info on morse code, occasionally makes its way into voice modes.

[Anonymous No.1454091]

>general for months but still never tx'd
>listening to local net on baomeme right now
>literal boomerfest
>people checking in
>telling "jokes" while they're at it
>it's like all boomer memes condensed into a supernova and exploded creating an unironic dadjoke boomerverse
Jesus fucking christ is this what I want to become

[Anonymous No.1454158]

>>1454085
>Amateurs use 3-letter Q-codes.
How many also use Z-codes?

[Anonymous No.1454294]

>>1453789
It's not a whole lot.They added some extra data capacity, so call signs/signal reports don't get cut off for the meteor scatter guys. Nothing real exciting.

[Anonymous No.1454296]

>>1454091
You already fell for the baomeme, I think you're well on your way.

[Anonymous No.1454297]

>>1454158
Only military larpers

[Anonymous No.1454332]

>>1454294
>It's not a whole lot.T
Clearly the time has come for a more comprehensible protocol. Let us call it 4C.

While FT8 has many advantages it is too automated. It would be nice if you could keep a dialog going and use the free data capacity to transfer routing information. Might add relaying features which is very useful in emergencies.

[Anonymous No.1454666]

Any recommendations for an under $250 quad band or any other mobile with 6m/2m/70cm?
Decent china brands welcome.

[Anonymous No.1454682]

any of you faggots have a .pdf of the Extra Class License Manual 11th edition? I've got the Technician and General manuals and I'm taking the test in 2 weeks. I want to go for all 3 at once but I'm a poor NEET bastard.

[Anonymous No.1454690]

>>1454682
Rarely does anyone Mustang to Extra their first go and you certainly don't have time to study well enough to pass in 2 weeks.

Take: http://aa9pw.com/cgi-bin/exam2011.cgi

Extra is insanely technical.

[Anonymous No.1454693]

>>1454690
I'm a STEMfag NEET out of school until the end of September. I can cowboy the extra manual in 2 weeks, no problem. I have experience with DIY electronics so I already know half of the tech shit anyway

[Anonymous No.1454696]

>>1454693
Ah, okay, yeah, you might Mustang. Best I can do is that test link there. It's a question pool of 713 and that test link randomly gives you the questions. If you take a couple of tests a day, you might get it.

Good luck. I'll see you at the American Red Cross Building on the 8th. (I'm a VE)

[Anonymous No.1454701]

>>1454696
I'm not taking it on the 8th, I must be in a different location. Thanks though, I guess I can just use an old edition of the manual and take the practice tests online. I only need 35/50 after all

[Anonymous No.1454703]

>>1454701
If you have the 2015 or older version, only 24 questions were changed/added to and they're almost identical to questions asked in tech and general.

[Anonymous No.1454714]

I want to build/purchase a radio & transmitter set up for emergency communication/non-emergency communication with my family an hours drive away. Doesn't have to go far. In the event of a crisis, I basically want to have a predetermined frequency that I can broadcast at to make contact with my senpai. Is this possible?

[Anonymous No.1454715]

>>1454714
Proper antenna mounting/ground plane and a 35-50 watt radio on Simplex mode should do you just fine.

YOu will get foxhunted if you use amateur radio bands illegally. You have no idea how autistic we are about non-hams on our bands.

[Anonymous No.1454717]

>>1454666
>Decent china brands

[Anonymous No.1454718]

>>1454717
I guess you don't know of any then?

[Anonymous No.1454719]

>>1454715
Thanks! How large of an Antenna would I need to communicate over say, 100km. Is it possible to build this radio? Is there particular frequencies that aren't used or are left for emergency/rare use? Sorry I don't know much.

[Anonymous No.1454732]

>>1454719
>How large of an Antenna would I need to communicate over say, 100km

Depends on the frequency but at least a quarterwave vertical, but directional Yagi would be better.

Lower HF bands (160-40) meters would be virtually useless to you as their groundwave doesn't go 100 km and their first skywave bounce is at least 200 km. (This is the glib description). You'll want to use something between 6 Meters and 23 Centimeters for line-of-sight comms and I would say 50 watts.

Build? Sure, it will probably cost you more than an out of the box set, though.

[Anonymous No.1454738]

>>1454732
>line of sight simplex at 100 km
Not without large towers. That's 160/80/40 meter (depending on solar activity) NVIS territory.

[Anonymous No.1454742]

>>1454738
I have a 12 meter "tower" (an open J-pole on my chimney, actually) and get LOS with my buddy 90 km away on 2 meters with 35 watts. Pretty flat area, admittedly, with no major structures between us.

Speaking of NVIS though, I have been getting my G5RV acting like a NVIS at the grey line all month long. My buddy 90 km (also has a G5RV) away and I talk on 40, usually with 20 watts, for about an hour before we lose each other and conditions return to normal-ish. That's been interesting.

[Anonymous No.1454798]

>>1454296
Nah, baomeme is just the cheapest entry point for someone curious but undecided if they want to delve deeper. At $25 it's literally try before you buy, unless you live in a shithole where that's your weekly wage or worse.

[Anonymous No.1454799]

>>1454798
An RTL-SDR is even cheaper and gives you much more bang for your buck in every area except transmitting (since it's just a receiver).

[Anonymous No.1454840]

>>1454799
A dongle is not a radio.
A feng is complete and portable.

[Anonymous No.1454879]

>>1454738
Depends on terrain. Have talked further than that simplex on 63cm cb from a mountain but have been in other locations it wouldn't go 1 km.

>>1454719
In my country is legal to use any frequency without a license for a genuine emergency.

[Anonymous No.1454895]

>>1454879
>genuine emergency
Which means you cannot legally set up and test your equipment that way.

[Anonymous No.1454987]

tornado came through my area. A tree fell on the roof and it's completely fucked up, dozens of trees down in the yard, several dozens of trees down in the woods. Tons of shingles blew off the house, the siding is gone in multiple areas. But hey, at least all my wire antennas and my 15ft base station antenna are perfectly fine. Nature is funny sometimes.

[Anonymous No.1454993]

>>1454799
Are those any good though? They get mixed reviews, and I hear that they are really noisy and don't work correctly unless you buy another $60 worth of accessories.

[Anonymous No.1455021]

>>1454993
It depends on your location and what band you're on. There is more interference when you go into direct sampling mode (make sure the dongle you buy supports this, the RTL-SDR brand ones do) to receive HF, but I was still able to pick up activity the one time I tried doing it with a crappy dipole antenna that isn't even long enough to be resonant at 6 meters let alone 40 meters where I was looking. You may also encounter imaging issues with really strong signals showing up on frequencies other than what they're being broadcasted on. For VHF/UHF I've had no issues and being able to receive all FM digital voice modes at that price is amazing, plus being able to do band surveys with rtl_power to see where activity is is a really nice feature while a Baofeng will scan so slowly that you can only really scan known active frequencies.

I should specify that I originally purchased a Baofeng and found the RTL-SDR to be much more interesting and learned a lot more about the activity in my area with it.

[Anonymous No.1455022]

>>1454987
>Nature is funny sometimes.

[Anonymous No.1455023]

>>1455021
Yep I've already got the baomeme, but I'm looking for a really inexpensive option to do what you've described, namely monitoring wider bands for activity. Picrelated is the one I'm looking at, but I don't want to get it only to discover I need $60+ in accessories to make it work. I assume that for $90-100 I could get something much nicer.

[Anonymous No.1455025]

>>1455023
That's the exact one I bought. Only thing I bought in addition to that was a magnet mount antenna so I could use it in my car. I should note that it is nice to have an old spare laptop to put the software on since that allows you to choose the best place for the antenna rather than being restricted to whereever your normal computer is. I ran the included cable out a window and mount the antenna on the window with the included sution cup mount when I'm using it.

[Anonymous No.1455027]

>>1455025
Are there apps that work for Android, or just Windows? I've got a small Samsung tablet that I would like to use it with for mobile operation.

[Anonymous No.1455090]

>>1455027
I think there might be some Android software out there but I'm not entirely sure since I don't own a smartphone or tablet. Windows support seems to be good from what I've seen, possibly better than Linux support if you want a single piece of software that does everything. I personally Linux on all my machines.

[Anonymous No.1455099]

>>1454987
Friend of mine at work was sitting in the city park with his family a week ago, tree falls over, wife hospitalised needing multiple spine surgeries, 6 month old kid, dead.

>mfw I have no face

[Anonymous No.1455146]

>>1455090
looks like there are some android apps. Fugit I'm just gonna buy one. Looks like it works with Raspberry Pi too.

[Anonymous No.1455653]

Is the FTP down? Haven't been able to connect in the past few days that I've tried.

[Anonymous No.1455692]

>>1455653
>PING collectivecomputers.org (71.183.92.238) 56(84) bytes of data.
>--- collectivecomputers.org ping statistics ---
>68 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 69665ms

yeah it's fucked

[Anonymous No.1455771]

>>1455653
>>1455692
It has been down a couple of times in the past but returned after a week or so. Collective Computers run a computer recycling operations and I guess the FTP server is a recycled server, that has seen better days.

It was announced on 4chan last summer or so, so it is used by a lot of people.

[Anonymous No.1456425]

>>1455146
Do yourself a favor and buy a roll of wire and some RF connectors, and one of those SMA adapter sets. Make a few antennas and eventually buy an upconverter from nooelectric.You won't have a very pleasant experience otherwise.If you run Wangdows, you can spare yourself a little hassle and just cut to the chase and get a RSP1A from SDRPlay for about $100. It has larger bandwidth and doesn't require an upconverter to listen to anything outside of broadcast radio and 2 meters.

[Anonymous No.1456480]

>>1456425
thanks for the heads up. I have a box of SMA connectors that came with an old broken oscilloscope that I haven't had the time to repair yet. What kind of wire do I need? I want to be able to scan 2m and 70cm for local communications, and most/all of the HF bands as well

[Anonymous No.1456493]

>>1456480
>What kind of wire do I need?
Thicker is better, but obviously it'll be harder to manage.Solid or multi-strand doesn't matter in terms of reception, but solid will break easier, especially when it's long and outdoors..

[Anonymous No.1457069]

>>1447913
What are the chances of them offering an expanded version of the QSX that includes VHF coverage? QRP Labs already offers the Ultimate3S kit which can transmit on the 6 meter, 2 meter, and 1.25 meter bands. An SDR based all mode transceiver could easily include support for digital voice modes such as DMR, DSTAR, Yaesu System Fusion, P25, and others which would make it a ridiculously good deal even if adding that coverage brought the price up to $200.

[Anonymous No.1457215]

And for a dollar more it could run on zero-point energy and crack all encryption.

[Anonymous No.1457362]

>>1457069
Sure, that'd be great.

[Anonymous No.1457421]

>>1457069
OVI40-SDR, the fork of mcHF, might be extended to VHF. It is rather slow in development though.

[evita No.1457495]

>>1445213
nope. need more power. if in USA get a gun

[evita No.1457498]

>>1445865
yaesu ft817

[evita No.1457501]

>>1445965
my first rig was a kw Atlanta for 60gbp. old boat anchors are not easy to learn on

[evita No.1457506]

>>1447366
try running a wire from the negative of the battery to a cold water pipe. you are in the UK so its copper. connect to the metal. then run a wire as long as possible and as high as possible. great if you have an old style pully washing line. twist the end around the antenna. you can also make a simple antenna tuner, or a passive magnetic loop antenna for a table top.

[evita No.1457508]

>>1447417
worst time to buy. sunspot cycle. wait 4 years

[evita No.1457512]

>>1447749
>>1452226
your school has security personnel Jesus is that a borstal?

[Anonymous No.1457549]

>>1457215
>>1457362
Is it that unlikely? The same company already sells the Ultimate3S beacon kit with the band module of your choice for $33 with those bands as selectable options at no extra charge, so it isn't like a home built kit on those bands is unlikely. It's not like I'm asking for it to run the full 10 watts when on those bands or anything. Also, there's already open source software for decoding those modes, so it's not like that isn't doable.

[Anonymous No.1457554]

>>1457508
Most people don't get CB radios for the sporadic over the horizon DX, they get them for local line of sight usage. The worse the sunspot cycle is, the better CB radios are for local usage due to lower interference from far away sources.

[Anonymous No.1457704]

How active are repeaters in your guys' areas? Where I live, the only real activity outside the occasional (read as not always daily) couple of people who know each other personally talking about trivial things for a couple minutes and the more common person calling out that their monitoring with no response which happens a few times a day is net activity, either the couple scheduled nets or unscheduled skywarn nets during storms (which are probably equal to a months worth of normal activity). I've heard it's like this in other places as well so I'm wondering how common it is. Also, has anyone had any experience with repeaters while traveling?

[Anonymous No.1457706]

How active are repeaters in your guys' areas? Where I live, the only real activity outside the occasional (read as not always daily) couple of people who know each other personally talking about trivial things for a couple minutes and the more common person calling out that they're monitoring with no response which happens a few times a day is net activity, either the couple scheduled nets or unscheduled skywarn nets during storms (which are probably equal to a months worth of normal activity). I've heard it's like this in other places as well so I'm wondering how common it is. Also, has anyone had any experience with repeaters while traveling?

[Anonymous No.1458311]

>>1457706
Fairly active actually. I'd say 50/50 chance any time between 6am and 10pm there will be someone talking.

[Anonymous No.1458315]

What's the best scanner (sub $100) which will allow me to ignore digital/any channels? Really fucking annoying to run into these all night with my baofeng.

I don't want to have to preprogram the frequencies, I'm looking to find new ones.

[Anonymous No.1458545]

Radio noob question can I hear ham traffic with this?
Gp-5 ssb radio?

[Anonymous No.1458649]

>>1458545
Yes, some of it. Same as Tecsun PL-365.

[Anonymous No.1459857]

Does anyone know what happened to Defcons Wifi shoutout competition? I know its been a long long time since it ran.

[Anonymous No.1459968]

Anyone have a link on how to MARS mod radios? What I've found for my Kenwood is I just need to remove a 0 ohm jumper resistor but that doesn't seem right to me and I really don't want to accidentally kill a $1500 radio.

[Anonymous No.1460009]

>>1459968
Get some solder wick and unsolder one end and lift it out of the board. It normally connects to the microprocessor which controls Tx inhibit. There may also be mods to program in bands used in other countries. The ham bands in my country do not all match burger ham bands but radios will probably have an option for this country.

[Anonymous No.1460998]

>>1460009
>unsolder one end
soldering iron and tweezers

[Anonymous No.1461236]

>>1455771
Last login 20180825. The FileZilla was configured like a honeypot. Came across notes of caution left by users as to content.

[Anonymous No.1461458]

>>1461117

[Anonymous No.1461605]

>>1455023
So I'm a total beginner. First time browsing this thread. Would a kit like this be nice for getting into ham stuff, just listen to others conversations?
What do you guys even do with your radios? I don't know anyone else with one.

[Anonymous No.1461609]

>>1461605
It's a cheap way to listen but you'll want a better antenna (search "randomwire") and make it as high and long as possible. They're okay but not very sensitive compared to an actual radio. I;d suggest an actual radio, something cheap like an IC-7651.

I use my radios to chat around the world (voice, data, Morse), do weather reporting (Skywarn) during bad weather for the National Weather Service, monitor military global communications, and experiment (satellite signals, Earth-Moon-Earth bounces, ELF communications) .

[Anonymous No.1461625]

>>1461605 - Follow up on this one:
How common is encrypted handheld radios? I'm thinking about those typically used by security at night clubs. I live just across the street from one, and wouldn't mind listening in if possible.

[Anonymous No.1461628]

>>1461625
Civilian encryption is rare, in most cases (at least for hams, maritime and aviation), it's illegal. Now, they may have Digital Mode radios but there's software that can listen to that. Likely, they're just using FMRS, GMRS or illegally simplexing on a Baofeng (happens all the damn time).

[Anonymous No.1461707]

>>1461605
>Would a kit like this be nice for getting into ham stuff, just listen to others conversations?
What are you wanting to listen to? If you're wanting to listen to local activity that's either being transmitted at lower power or on frequencies that won't easily travel over the horizon, then yes. If you're wanting to listen to activity on frequencies that will easily travel over the horizon though and don't mind not actually owning the receiver that you're using, you can get that capability much easier with SDRs that people have hooked up to the web and allow others to use for free. There's a list of many of them here:
http://www.websdr.org/

[Anonymous No.1461771]

How much power does one actually need for NVIS? This page claims that people have used the Pixie transceiver (which doesn't even manage 1 watt) for it and that it worked well at shorter distances, but I haven't seen anything to back up that claim.

http://www.al7fs.us/AL7FS2.html

[Anonymous No.1461779]

>>1461236
>The FileZilla was configured like a honeypot.
What does this mean?

>Came across notes of caution left by users as to content.
I never saw those, I was mainly in the ./Cyberpunk/Tech/Radio/ directory and that was technical material only.

Now the site has disappeared entirely.

[Anonymous No.1461788]

>>1461609
>RRP: £ 3387.78
>£2295.95 ( £1913.29 EXC. VAT )
Jesus christ.

[Anonymous No.1461829]

>>1461779
>site has disappeared
History: >>/g/thread/61120916

[Anonymous No.1462144]

>>1461829
It was nuked by Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/opendirectories/comments/83s62z/huge_collection_of_for_dummies_books/
>Yeah I went ahead and reported the site. Didn't bother confirming it myself, but that's something they can deal with.

[Anonymous No.1462220]

>>1462144
>5 months ago
patience..
Tue Sep 11 15:05:44 UTC 2018
ping -c 10 71.183.92.238
--- 71.183.92.238 ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 116.066/116.545/117.196/0.343 ms

[Anonymous No.1462231]

>>1462144
>5 months ago
patience.. some box seems to be alive again
Tue Sep 11 15:40:44 UTC 2018
host collectivecomputers.org
collectivecomputers.org has address 71.183.92.238
ping -c 10 collectivecomputers.org
--- collectivecomputers.org ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 116.066/116.545/117.196/0.343 ms

[Anonymous No.1462565]

>>1444577
Is it possible to make an handheld SDR that can RX/TX on 900 ISR, and with encryption?

[Anonymous No.1462676]

Noob altert. Looking to use GMRS on a strictly handheld to handheld basis. Like turbo-walkie talkies, mostly in the mountians. That being said I want a full range radio (like a baofeng) so i can listen to things even if I never transmit. Of course I might go full HAM in the future, I have a way of digging myself steadily deeper and deeper into things like this.

How do I choose the proper length antenna? Half the things I read say longer is always better, the other half says it has to be 1/4, 1/2 or 5/8 wavelength. Which is it? Again, primary use is GMRS in the mountians with a handheld.

I understand that physical length, electrical length, and mounted height are separate things.

[Anonymous No.1462709]

>>1462676
Any individual in the United States who is at least 18 years of age .. may apply for a GMRS license. In any case, each GMRS station must be identified by transmission of its FCC-assigned call sign..
>mostly in the mountians
Buy a pack of fengs and fly under the radar.

[Anonymous No.1462800]

>>1462676
Nagoya 771 or a clone will work best for a Baofeng. Standing outside with one, I was able to tag a repeater 25 miles away (flat terrain).

[Anonymous No.1462804]

>>1462800
I've heard that reccomendation a million times but nobody ever says why.

Is it because it's (near) 5/8 wave for GMRS freqs? Or is it just because it's long? Nagoya makes a 17" one too would that be better?

[Anonymous No.1462808]

>>1462804
It just works really well for an HT antenna on both 2 meter and 70 cm. It seriously is what makes a memefeng into a usable radio.I have 10 memefengs for special events and just throw out the rubber duck that comes with them and put the 771 in the kit. (Also, get a shit ton of extra batteries)

[Anonymous No.1463356]

Stock antenna with counterweight is more effective than an antenna that ruins the SWR. Read https://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/7741 about the 771.

[Anonymous No.1463438]

>>1462676
If your radio has metal in the body, use a quarter wave. Otherwise use a half wave. Your radio needs to see in all directions. "High gain" antennas are generally shit for portable use.

[Anonymous No.1463547]

>>1463438
An end-fed half wave antenna is hi-Z and requires a tuner or the power is reflected back to the radio. A single-pole antenna only exists as a meme.

[Anonymous No.1464352]

Hey i was redirected from /sci/
I have a question about this video in particular
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr_rvbsQpS0
I've already got this image from SSTV but im fairly certain theres more hidden. Ive tried looking at a spectrogram of it but to be honest i have absolutely no clue what im looking for/doing. If wrong board sorry.

[Anonymous No.1464414]

>>1464352
That's probably it. It's viral marketing, not ancient aliens.

The artifacts in it are probably from youtube compression.

[Anonymous No.1464419]

>>1464414
possible but some answers about whether or not there was more to it lead me to believe that theres more to it

[Anonymous No.1464630]

>>1445213
Yeah man, just throw together a spark gap transmitter and you’ll be gud2go

[Anonymous No.1464657]

Hiya all,
I'm playing around with a fully autonomous "Drone" (As in predator, not quadcopter), and have mounted a radio transmitter on it. I'm trying to wrap my head around SSTV.
I'm trying to transmit a series of 212x122 pixel RGB images, and the modes I'm looking at to do this are either not widely supported, or take a long time per frame/have more scan lines than I need.
With SSTV, is it just generally accepted you'll end up using a mode that's overkill for what you want to broadcast?
If not, what's the quickest mode that would spit out 212x122 colour images that most people could still read?

[Anonymous No.1464675]

>>1464657
Wide band analogue tv. FM on 23cm.

[Anonymous No.1464685]

>>1464675
...don't know why I didn't just think of broadcasting it using regular TV, guess I'm a bit of an idiot.
Thanks anon!

[Anonymous No.1464921]

The radio test is next saturday, am i going to pass? i don't even know how a radio works

[Anonymous No.1464952]

>>1464921
.....did you study?

[Anonymous No.1464954]

>>1464952
I watched these videos and took notes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VehtvfYAKsQ

[Anonymous No.1465158]

what the easiest way to get ladder line into the house? could i hook it to 4:1 balun and bring the coax in?

[Anonymous No.1465211]

>>1465158
Either that or keep the balun indoor.

[Anonymous No.1465216]

>>1465211
Does anyone have a good site/pdf on balun construction? I understand what they do, just not the how and why.

[Anonymous No.1465218]

>>1465211
id need a 9:1, huh. i do have that foam. i have too many fucking wires hang out out of this room...need to neaten it up. ladder line is not very purdy to look at

[Anonymous No.1465369]

>>1464685
Just remember you have to station id it. Morse audio ident could work.

[Anonymous No.1465370]

>>1465216
"Baluns: What they do and how they do it"

[Anonymous No.1465716]

>>1464657
>212x122 pixel RGB images
That is tiny. You might want to also transmit orientation data so that you can superimpose an artificial horizon and a compass heading on that image to aid legibility.

[Anonymous No.1465734]

>>1465716
I should say, it's not a stream of the drone's camera, I just want to fly the thing over a few receivers (10+ miles up mind you, needs to be above clouds to get solar power) and slowly bombard them with slow-scan porn.
It's autonomous and doesn't need, nor can be, remotely controlled, so a video feed is pretty silly.
...I guess it'd make a nice foe-satellite, taking aerials shots and broadcasting them over SSTV, but that isn't my intention. My intention is broadcasting SSTV porn to military bases.

[Anonymous No.1465770]

>>1465734
How high do you plan on flying the thing? How accurate are the military's anti-drone lasers?

[Anonymous No.1465837]

>>1465770

[Anonymous No.1465878]

>>1465770
As high as I can get it, probably drop down if I want to boost the signal.
>How accurate are the military's anti-drone lasers?
I'm just in Australia, a bit of harmless fun, nothing to get the lasers out for

[Anonymous No.1465902]

>>1465734
what a hero

[Anonymous No.1466036]

>>1465878
good luck friendo

[Anonymous No.1466150]

>>1465878
gringos and aliens at Pine Gap want some entertainment

[Anonymous No.1466206]

I was just reading about Midland's Dual Mike and CB Talk phone app and I'm now somewhat worried about the effects it could have on CB radio and amateur VHF/UHF FM activity. While I know there are already phone apps for push to talk communication with friends or anyone nearby such as Zello, this is a company that normally deals with unlicensed radios getting on board with this and even pushing the service with their normal hardware.

CB radio activity and amateur VHF/UHF FM activity are already slowing down these days and I have a feeling that adding services like this as another competitor could make the situation even worse. The only real cons of these services I can see for most people are fragmentation and if you normally go places where there is no cell coverage (which are becoming harder and harder to find these days unless you have a crappy 2G phone) or are in a disaster area where cell towers are down. Even cellular data usage with these services isn't much of a problem with Zello supposedly not going over a few MB an hour with heavy nonstop usage.

Does anyone else worry about this?

[Anonymous No.1466443]

>>1466150
Pine gap's the one place I don't wanna fuck with, but if you have it on good authority they'd appreciate some porn then I might fly by. I'd still keep way the fuck out though, and broadcast near horizontal.

[Anonymous No.1466563]

>>1466206
No, I'd rather not rely on the Internet for everything. Needing an ISP (cell, cable, DSL, etc.) for everything you own to work seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

[Anonymous No.1466707]

>>1466563
>I'd rather not rely on the Internet for everything
Me neither. My main worry though is that most other people won't have an issue with that, and it would result in local CB and amateur VHF/UHF activity dropping so low that those frequencies would only be usable for communicating with whatever small group of friends who still want to use that hardware. It's not like most preppers, who seem to be the largest group worried about communicating without infrastructure, will actually start using their gear and generate any regular traffic. Also, there are already Skywarn groups that have moved over to Zello, and Skywarn nets are pretty much the only thing that produces a decent amount of traffic on the repeaters where I live. Without Skywarn and weather net traffic where I live they could probably move to having only 1 repeater and it would still be unused about 99.5% of the week.

[Anonymous No.1467239]

I've just passed my foundation licence and I'm looking at radios to buy.

My question is about RF power. For the foundation licence the power limit is 10w. I've found a radio where the power settings are high - 50w, mid - 25w and low 5w. To be legal I could only use this particular radio at 5w. Is there a way to reconfigure the wattage preset for the other two settings high and mid. One idea would be to see if it's possible to to do this in software, the other might involve making changes to the hardware. I'm also aware that the foundation licence does not permit modification. So if it where possible to change power output in hardware, then I'd have to get someone who is permitted to make modifications to do this for me.

It would be nice if you could set the power output to any integer between min and max.

[Anonymous No.1467244]

>>1467239
Probably not, but that's impossible to actually determine without knowing the make/model.

[Anonymous No.1467251]

heres a dumb question. im making a simple 2 wire dipole for 11 meter. now if i curl about an inch and a half of each end into a loop (to hang) does that now make my ends 1.5in shorter each?
pic related. where would my end measurement be from so i can adjust swr? A, B, or C????

[Anonymous No.1467278]

>>1467251
B

[Anonymous No.1467281]

>>1467251
B

[Anonymous No.1467282]

>>1467251
B. you should strip the section under the screw connector too.

[Anonymous No.1467310]

>>1467281
>>1467282
thanks anons

[Anonymous No.1467324]

>>1467244
It was the Yaesu ftm 7250dr, I tried looking for a schematic but coudn't find one. It's not the only radio to do power setting in this manner.

I thought like you can set the output of voltage regulator with component value so too with an RF amp.

[Anonymous No.1467350]

>>1467239
just throw it on 5w and start studying for your upgrade (or do what everyone here does and ignore the power limit on vhf/uhf, on hf rigs you usually get more control)

[Anonymous No.1467357]

>>1445210
what's his endgame?

[Anonymous No.1467697]

>>1467357
Not a good one, seems he has a colostomy bag.

[Anonymous No.1468645]

What size CW filter do people generally use these days? Do people just use a 500 Hz filter or do they trend toward something tighter these days? I know I've seen kits like the QRP Labs QCX where the only option is a 200 Hz filter.

[Anonymous No.1468883]

I know this is ham radio and not police scanners, but could you guys look over this scanner I'm about to buy and tell me if it is legit?
I live innawoods and I want to listen to the local hick cops and EMS, who all operate on some 800 mhz trunked system. As far as I can see this radio is ideal and should be a good purchase assuming I can get it for under 150. Link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/323459614336

[Anonymous No.1468885]

>>1468883
Should be fine for your needs, however be aware EVERYONE is switching to 900 MHz Phase II sooner than later. You might want to look into an SDR like SDRPlay and software for your computer that can Trunk and Phase II.

[Anonymous No.1468893]

>>1468885
There's PC software that will decode P25 Phase 2??

[Anonymous No.1468919]

I've read a few articles here and there but I still can't get my head round how an AM signal has a bandwidth. Any explanations or links?

[Anonymous No.1468940]

>>1468919
While you change the amplitude of a sine wave you also change its shape which generates other frequencies related to the change.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amplitude_modulation#Simplified_analysis_of_standard_AM

[Anonymous No.1469026]

>>1468919
Took me a wile to understand that. Of what I can work out AM bandwidth = carrier + (audio bandwidth x 2). If you have a cb get on a local kiwi sdr' zoom in fairly close and make some noise on an empty channel. Whistle some sweeping tones and watch. There will be some audio harmonics. Alternatively if you don't have a cb or local sdr just watch a variety of AM from others.

[Anonymous No.1469098]

>>1468919
A mixer as shown in >>1468940 multiplies two signals together, and when one has a frequency much larger than the other you get that signal oscillating underneath the envelope of the lower frequency signal. But there's a mathematical simplification we can do to:
>cos(f*t) * cos(F*t)
where f and F are the two frequencies. It is equal to:
>0.5*cos((f - F)*x) + 0.5*cos((f + F)*x)
I.e. two cosines added to one another, one with a frequency slightly below the carrier and one slightly above. And the difference between the carrier and each of these frequencies is the audio frequency itself. In the frequency domain this will be visible as two bumps to either side of the carrier frequency, but the carrier frequency will also be there due to the DC component added to the initial audio wave in order to avoid zero-crossing, as illustrated in pic related. Since all audio signals you'll encounter are a superposition of sine waves, this reasoning can be extended to a case of a complicated waveform.

[Anonymous No.1469101]

>>1469026
>carrier + (audio bandwidth x 2)
The used bandwidth does not depend on the frequency of the carrier. For AM it is (carrier+tone)-(carrier-tone)=tone+tone=2*tone frequency.

[Anonymous No.1469103]

>>1469098
Oh and that means CW/morse code has bandwidth too, and it can be fairly large if you use shitty switching waveforms. Minimising bandwidth is a matter of switching the signal on and off with a ramp of some kind, it's the sharp transitions that give things lots of high-frequency harmonics.

[Anonymous No.1469324]

I think I may get a license and never use it, I'm not really interested in talking to old men about their gout

[Anonymous No.1469334]

>>1469101
Carrier with audio bandwidth x 2?

I used to think AM was carrier power modulation given you modulated the power to produce it.

Some of the commercial radios have an am mode that is carrier with upper side band only.

[Anonymous No.1469338]

>>1469324
What would _you_ like to talk about?

[Anonymous No.1469350]

>>1469103
>a ramp of some kind
Thanks to envelope shaping, 'clicky' CW has become rare and you can have half a dozen concurrent CW-QSOs within 1 kHz.

[Anonymous No.1469518]

>>1464921
I'm this guy and passed my technician exam yesterday. I'll see you niggers on the airwaves

[Anonymous No.1469550]

>>1468883
This is fine for P25 (phase I) systems and analog trunked systems. I use this, myself, to listen to ARMER and WISCOM. Unless the system you are listening to is moving over to phase II (or is), I wouldn't worry about right now.

[Anonymous No.1469552]

>>1469324
So, pretty much what you do here, talk about how you don't want to talk about gout?

[Anonymous No.1469567]

What do I need to into software defined radio? Can I do anything besides CHRIP on my UV5R?

[Anonymous No.1469591]

>>1469567
Antenna (randomwire as long and high as you can).
SDR ($30 to $200, I'd go with the $100 SDRPlay)
Software (many free ones out there, I like HDSDR)

The Memefeng, via CHIRP, can be programmed to operate on VHF Aviation and UHF Maritime (which the radio won't let you input manually)

Really the only 'hack' I know for it.

[Anonymous No.1469603]

>>1469591
Thanks

[Anonymous No.1469709]

What could someone do with a myriad of 315Mhz radios from these tire pressure sensors?

[Anonymous No.1469724]

>>1469709
Those use radio? I'd boost their range and use them for some sort of private messaging network, but I guess they're transmit only?

[Anonymous No.1469734]

>>1469724
>Those use radio?

[Anonymous No.1469738]

>>1469734
How long do they last on a CR2450? I always figured they used something like induction; like with the primary unmoving and the secondary moving, so you could power the device while it's sending information back. Just like a non-contact credit card.

[Anonymous No.1469743]

>>1469738
>"When the vehicles starts moving, the transmitter enters driving mode. It measures and transmits RF burst 4 times per minute up to 30 bursts. The telegram length is approximately 30ms. After this period the transmitter measures and transmits data every minute. The transmitter will remain in driving mode for a period of 10 minutes after the vehicle is stopped."

As for how long they last, for their specific task, is roughly 5 years. I'm curious as to what I can do with just the radio portion connected to a dedicated power source. I'm just brainstorming ideas because i have about 100+ of these sensors.

[Anonymous No.1469776]

>>1469743
Home automation

[Anonymous No.1469784]

I'm a new guy with no loicence yet but I got a ht two band ft60. So far I just hear some aviation and weather. I also got a 1/4 wave antenna which is supposed to be better than the duck. hf dxing and sending encrypted data packets sound interesting.

[Anonymous No.1469800]

>>1469743
I guess it's something they replace alongside transmission fluid and brake pads every nth service. How'd you end up with so many? Does 315MHz match up with an amateur radio band where you live?

[Anonymous No.1469806]

>>1469800
Even if it doesn't, 10mW is so tiny that the radio spooks wouldn't be able to track them down. Of course, it also limits whatever you can do with them. They're probably integrated to the point where it's infeasible to modify them.

[Anonymous No.1469808]

>>1469806
did a little bit of digging, this video here shows the internals. looks like a single chip solution, no debug pins or pads. still possible to do something if you find pinout for the IC tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQhK8WqRZ2g

[Anonymous No.1469809]

>>1469800
They are installed in the wheels of vehicles and need to be replaced when there is a failure (typically dead battery)

>How'd you end up with so many?
Worked at a tire shop and accumulated many of them over the years

>Does 315MHz match up with an amateur radio band where you live?
How do I find this info? I see a repeater in my area on 433MHz which I also have a lot of tpms sensors for as they generally come from foreign model vehicles

[Anonymous No.1469819]

>>1469809
>I see a repeater in my area on 433MHz
Disregard, the repeater is 443MHz

[Anonymous No.1469842]

>>1469809
Google "[country] radio spectrum allocation", maybe with "chart" thrown in there. This one's from canada.

[Anonymous No.1469850]

>>1469819
>repeater is 443MHz
What does it repeat?

[Anonymous No.1470043]

>>1469850
Not sure. Haven't been able to pick anything up on my uv5r. I'm getting some software defined radio equipment here in a few days and will find out more. At any rate here is a sample of my tpms collection

[Anonymous No.1470068]

>>1469784
>sending encrypted data packets sound interesting
Sure. Could land you in jail. Checked the FAQ?

[Anonymous No.1470074]

Why does it take a graduate degree in electrical engineering to understand RF? Are all RF hobbyists just EE undergrads or something?

[Anonymous No.1470088]

>>1470074
Lol

[Anonymous No.1470205]

>>1469808
https://www.infineon.com/dgdl/SP37_450kPa_PB.pdf?fileId=db3a30433784a0400138098f04191799
Looks like they have both a transmitter at ~315MHz and a receiver at 125kHz, anyone know what the receiver is for? The host car telling it when to send data (>>1469743)? Programming?

It says 5-8dBm, but since it has an external antenna there's nothing stopping you from whacking a BJT on there and amplifying the signal, ± impedance matching. But I'd give up on reprogramming it, I think you're stuck with the temperature, pressure, acceleration, and battery voltage sensors. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, all that alone is perfectly fine for putting up on a high-altitude balloon if you boost the output power and manage to hide it from the feds.

[Anonymous No.1470257]

>>1470205
https://youtube.com/watch?v=bKqiq2Y43Wg

This guy goes into detail "hacking" them. The tpms transmits the sensor position left front, right front, etc. and the tire air pressure to the vehicles computer via RF

[Anonymous No.1470461]

>>1470205
>what the receiver is for?
inductive activation of learn mode

[Anonymous No.1470979]

Good night sweet prince.
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-18-980A1.pdf
>September 24, 2018
>FCC ENFORCEMENT ADVISORY
>TWO-WAY VHF/UHF RADIOS MAY NOT BE IMPORTED,
ADVERTISED, OR SOLD IN THE UNITED STATES UNLESS
THEY COMPLY WITH THE COMMISSION’S RULES
>... these devices may only be imported, advertised, sold, or used only if the
FCC first has approved them under its equipment authorization process (or unless the devices operate
exclusively on frequencies reserved for amateur licensees or they are intended for use exclusively by the
federal government)
>Amateur Radio Exception. There is one exception to this certification requirement: if a device is capable
of operating only on frequencies that the FCC has allocated for use by Amateur Radio Service licensees, it
does not require FCC equipment authorization, 8 and an amateur licensee may use his or her license to
operate such radios. However, many two-way radios that purport to operate on amateur frequencies also
operate on frequencies that extend beyond the designated amateur frequency bands. 9 If a two-way VHF/UHF radio is capable of operating outside of the amateur frequency bands, it cannot be imported,
advertised, sold, or operated within the United States without an FCC equipment certification. 10
cont...

[Anonymous No.1470980]

>>1470979
Note that the only radios that the FCC will approve under their equipment authorization process to operate on a wide range of frequencies are under Part 90, which currently prohibits the radios from being programmable from the radio or having a VFO. This means almost all currently available Baofeng radios made after 2013 (when the Part 90 rules were changed to disallow radios that are front pannel programmable or have a VFO) are now illegal to operate or sell, and all future models will either be limited to the amateur radio bands only or lose their VFO and ability to program frequencies without a computer. This also means that modifying any amateur radio equipment to transmit off the amateur radio bands is illegal going forward whether you actually transmit off the amateur radio bands or not.

[Anonymous No.1471016]

>>1470979
What about importing 90% completed models and soldering in the fuse?

[Anonymous No.1471039]

>>1470979
>advertised, sold
Does that mean I can no longer sell my used Feng on ebay?

[Anonymous No.1471230]

We are at 314 and another thread comes to a successful end. Trouble is, the old FTP site no longer responds. The FAQ is now at ftp://50.31.112.231/pub/
We cannot make sub directories so it is a mess. Anyone knows of another better site?

[Anonymous No.1471241]

>>1471016
Ways to continue selling radios with the same capabilities would involve either selling them as a kit (which is unlikely since most people don't want to have to build something themselves) or selling them locked to amateur radio bands and having a jumper wire you could cut or desolder inside to unlock them (which is a feature that some amateur radio equipment sold by the big 3 actually offers).

>>1471039
>x can no longer be sold or operated
>can I sell mine?
What do you think?

[Anonymous No.1471253]

>>1471230
I enjoy the tranny piss porn that comes with this new FTP.

[Anonymous No.1471613]

>>1471253
Crikey! Or is this something that comes from constantly erecting large free standing antennas?

We sure need a fresh FTP site.

[Anonymous No.1471619]

>>1470979
Will this be as well policed as CB regulations?

https://i.4cdn.org/wsg/1538037133261.webm

[Anonymous No.1471627]

>>1471619
>Enormous RF field.
Hopefully they will castrate themselves and qualify for contribution in >>1471253

[Anonymous No.1471634]

>>1471230
>We cannot make sub directories
That's unusual. pub/ has the same permissions (rwxrwxr-x) as e.g. yarr/ which has lots of directories. Normally, when you can write you also can delete and create a directory.

Direct link to the current FAQ: ftp://borg.moe/pub/radio_FAQ_Preview8.htm

[Anonymous No.1471657]

>>1471039
>on ebay

There are loads of FRS radios advertised on ebay in my country.
>Totally illegal here

[Anonymous No.1471690]

>>1471634
>Normally,
but not in this case. pub is a dump, all you can do is add to the mess.
ftp://borg.moe/pub/Practical_Antenna_Handbook_5.pdf

[Anonymous No.1471773]

>moshi moshi Homer desu

[Anonymous No.1471850]

>>1471634
Entered yarr/ but was unable to create new sub directories there or in directories below yarr/ so there must be more settings that determine limitations.

So we still need a new site.

[Anonymous No.1471974]

How do I log into the FCC ULS webzone? I see my call sign posted and my FRN number but I did not create an account and have no password.

[Anonymous No.1472291]

>>1471850
a dropbox like pub/ is still good to have
new arrival: articles 1..5 by W8JHD
ftp://borg.moe/pub/all_about_antennas.pdf

[Anonymous No.1472736]

>>1471974
https://apps.fcc.gov/coresWeb/enterFrnForPwdReset.do

[Anonymous No.1472754]

--... ...--

[Anonymous No.1472804]

We are one step from falling off page 10. Meanwhile, enjoy Jeri Ellsworth demonstrating a loop antenna: https://youtu.be/Al3ZJipFq6k
Lots of cool radio stuff on her channel.

[Anonymous No.1472818]

Don't forget the stealth HF antenna.